This disclosure relates to an improved cap for a fluid bottle or container, and more particularly a reclosable cap that facilitates dispensing of fluid from an opening of the container, and also includes a hinged lid that effectively seals the container.
Published International Application WO2008/091936 is a commonly owned application and generally directed to a closure cap used in the same general environment of the present disclosure, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. Although commercially successful, there is a need for improved sealing capability, and a need to enhance pouring of the contents from the container. Generally, these types of caps are a molded structure in which the body includes internal thread portions that allow the cap to be threaded onto an externally threaded shoulder of the associated container, or alternatively to be snap-fit over the threaded shoulder. The shoulder surrounds the dispensing opening of the container. In some arrangements, the opening is flush or slightly below a plane generally defining a remainder of an upper surface of the container while in other instances, the opening protrudes above the upper surface.
As shown in the noted published international patent application, an enlarged diamond-shaped opening is provided in the cap with a vertex of an acute angle serving as the pour region of the cap. The oppositely disposed vertex of the diamond-shaped opening is located more closely to the hinge. A lid is joined to the body preferably by a living hinge, i.e., a thin region of plastic material that is integrally formed between the lid and the cap body. In this manner, once contents have been dispensed from the container through the cap opening, the lid is then positioned over the opening and seals contents of the container from the external environment.
This known arrangement also preferably includes a foil/polyethylene composite seal that is fusion bonded to an upper perimeter of the dispensing opening. Subsequently, the cap is received over the opening. Thus, in order for the container contents to be dispensed, a consumer must initially remove the cap, peel off the foil/polyethylene seal, and then re-install the cap onto the container. The foil/polyethylene seal assures that the container or bottle is sealed from the external environment. In other words, improved sealing is desired during shipment of the filled container from the manufacturing plant to the store.
Accordingly, a need exists for a reclosable cap assembly that eliminates the use of a foil/polyethylene composite sealed beneath the cap during shipping, that is substantially smaller in height, and effectively seals and re-seals the container, and that need not be removed from the container by the consumer prior to dispensing the contents of the container.